Rotary devices such as floor buffers used in cleaning and polishing and sanding, and for abrading of floors and other flat horizontal bottom underfoot surfaces, experience problems and are ineffective when used to apply fluids such as cleaning solutions, water, finishes and wood stain to floors and other flat horizontal bottom surfaces. Placing the fluid on the floor surface and then operating the buffer in the puddle of fluid does not allow the fluid to effectively get under the pad of the rotating device and results in slinging of the fluid. This is both messy and results in uneven application.
An often-employed technique is to use a solution tank with a valve to dump fluid onto the top of a rotating drive pad. The drive pad may have a series of holes that allow the fluid to disperse download into a porous pad which then allows the fluid to reach the bottom of the pad and contact the floor surface. However, the spinning action of the pad forces the fluid to disperse unevenly over the top of the drive pad. As a result some fluid splashes over the top sides of the drive pad, at the junction of the drive pad with the floor pad. Fluid is thrown from the top of the spinning pad, from the junction of the pad driver and pad, and from the sides of the pad. Only smaller amounts of fluid finally seep through the bottom of the floor pad to the contact area on the floor. This is messy, with the fluid hitting undesirable surfaces such as walls, baseboards and other objects located at heights just above the floor. This slinging of fluid also results in an uneven application of the fluid, with this random spotting and uneven application producing, for example, spots with are too light or too dark.
This invention disclosed here, which overcomes the foregoing problems, relates generally to the field of rotary-motion sanders, polishers, buffers, carpet cleaners, etc., and specifically to rotary motion of hand operated devices, e.g., buffers. Specifically, this invention turns these rotary-motion devices into center injection fluid-feed systems. Utilizing a coaxial rotary joint center-mounted fluid well ring that orbits around a center-mounted hub, fluid is passed from the outside of the ring through the center hub via fluid flow channels from the outside circumference to the center of hub. Regarding air itself to be within the definition of a “fluid” as used in this disclosure, and because this configuration can operated with fluid flowing toward or away from the bottom center of the hub, this configuration also can employ an applied vacuum to collect air and dust from under the bottom center of the hub, which makes this invention also useful as a vacuum for cleaner sanding.